Strauss: Don Quixote / Horn Concerto 1 / Don Juan

George Szell, although a friend and colleague of Strauss, was not an uncritical admirer of his music. Then again, Szell was probably not an uncritical admirer of anything. That's why he is arguably one of this century's two or three greatest conductors. Don Quixote is widely regarded as Strauss's finest tone poem. For this series of "fantastic variations of a theme of knightly character," the orchestra is typically large, with even a part for wind machine. Much of the writing, however, is very intimate. The Don himself is represented by a solo cello, Sancho by the viola and tenor tuba. This sort of "expanded chamber orchestra" writing is exactly the sort of thing that Szell and Cleveland did better than anyone. The results are, quite simply, unbeatable. --David Hurwitz